Old Movie Marquees, and Older Street Names

Q. Old movie houses don’t die; they’re repurposed as drugstores, clinics, even houses of worship. Yet the marquees remain, although these canopies no longer serve their original purpose. Why?

A. They serve as great advertising for many businesses and institutions besides movies. Consider three examples in Queens. In Rego Park, the former Trylon Theater (above in 2005) is now the Ohr Natan Bukharian Community Center, and the former movie marquee now has signs for the center in English and Russian. The Brandon Cinemas, on Austin Street in Forest Hills, was closed and replaced with a pediatric care center, as the marquee says. The website Forgotten New York shows the 1928 Elmwood Theater, on Hoffman Drive in Elmhurst, which closed as a theater in 2002 but was bought by the Rock Church, whose name was added to the exterior sign.

Scott Bringuet, project coordinator and design manager for the Ace Sign Company of Springfield, Ill., said that leaving up old marquees was common. “Many times the spaces are occupied by businesses or office spaces while the marquee remains as the ‘identification’ for the building,” said Mr. Bringuet, whose company made the huge Times Square sign in Roman numerals for Super Bowl XLVIII.

“We fabricate many new signs with a retro marquee look,” Mr. Bringuet said in an email, adding, “This provides that nostalgic quality that customers appreciate and old-sign guys cannot get enough of!”

If a theater with a marquee sign closes, the new owner is allowed to use that marquee for his business. The owner would, however, have to obtain a marquee-use permit and renew it annually, said Alexander Schnell, a spokesman for the Buildings Department.

Q. In Upper Manhattan there is a street called Vermilyea Avenue. This is my maiden name. It intersects with Dyckman, which is also named after an Old Dutch family. I assume it is named for the family that settled there when Manhattan was still part of New Netherland, but wondered if there is more to the story.

A. According to “Naming New York: Manhattan Places and How They Got Their Names” by Sanna Feirstein (New York University Press, 2001), Isaac Vermeille was a Huguenot who, fleeing religious persecution, took his family to New Amsterdam from Leyden in 1663. They settled, succeeded and had many descendants, and became an important local family with a slightly altered surname.

Michelle and James Nevius, the authors of “Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City” (Simon & Schuster, 2009), said in The New York Times in 2009: “Older street names in Manhattan are often tied to land ownership; the Vermilyea family owned a significant portion of land in Upper Manhattan in the late 17th century, and thus the area was probably called ‘the Vermilyeas’ long before there were any formal street names.”

Between Houston Street and Washington Heights, most family street names were wiped out by the numerical street grid of 1811. But in places like Inwood, where Vermilyea Avenue is, many family names survive.

EMAIL: fyi@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page MB4 of the New York edition with the headline: Old Movie Marquees, and Older Street Names. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe